Professor Erika Guay hails from Virginia and holds a B.A. from Gettysburg College
and a M.F.A. from University of North Carolina Greensboro. She is a member of United
States Institute for Theatre Technology (USITT), Kennedy Center American College Theatre
Association (KCACTF), Phi Beta Kappa,and Alpha Psi Omega. She has specialties in design
and building puppets, mask making, and Asian theatre.
Erika’s love of puppets began while studying bunraku with the Tonda Ningyo Troupe in Biwa-cho, Japan. From this experience she performed
with the Bunraku Bay puppet company at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. She has
designed and built puppets for many productions including an award winning puppet
for the opera Barnum’s Bird, many innovate animal puppets for the children’s tour show, Wiley and the Hairy Man, and bunraku styled puppets for the SUNY Plattsburgh premier of The Bamboo Princess.
Erika has also studied abroad in Italy, England, and Australia and traveled to several
other countries. A highlight trip was attending the 2007 Prague Quadrennial with the
USITT PQ tour which traveled and experienced theatre in Eastern Europe before attending
the conference.
As a transplant to the North Country, Erika is very interested in community outreach.
She has worked as a lighting designer for the North Country Ballet Ensemble production
of The Nutcracker, designed scenery and costumes at Pendragon Theatre in Saranac Lake, and regularly
presents at the KCACTF Region 1 conference. She is the co-vice chair of DTM for KCACTF,
and the book review editor for USITT TD&T. Erika is also the faculty adviser for Alpha
Psi Omega (APO), the Theatre Honors Society.
Erika also has a farm with her husband and two kids. They grow hops and a large garden,
raise sheep, chickens, and ducks, and make maple syrup.
